UF Health Shands Hospital’s smallest patients are getting more space with the expansion of the neonatal intensive care unit.
In December 2016, two NICU units will get 16 more beds, with eight beds added to each unit. The expansion will cost about $20 million and include a section to monitor and care for infants with brain injuries, a sibling play area and designated breastfeeding areas.
Dr. David Burchfield, the UF College of Medicine division of neonatology chief, said the NICU cares for about 750 to 800 babies annually, but it doesn’t have enough room for all of the babies who need care.
"We are constantly having to turn patients away," he said.
About half of the babies who come to the NICU are premature, which means they were born at least three weeks before their due date, Burchfield said. The other half have surgical or cardiac problems.
Right now, the NICU is having to send babies to other hospitals once they are well enough to be transferred, he said. That will change with the expansion.
"It will keep babies here a little bit longer," Burchfield said.
The beds aren’t the only thing the hospital is in short supply of, though, he said.
As it stands, there is only one room where families can learn how to use equipment their children will need, such as oxygen-supplying machines, he said. That room is almost always occupied.
There will be four of these rooms after the expansion, along with more equipment, such as ventilators, monitors and incubators, Burchfield said.
Ashley Kim, a UF psychology junior, has been volunteering at UF Health’s NICU for the past year and a half. She said the expansion of NICU will help nurses who need more space for babies.
Despite space constraints, the 20-year-old said the NICU always tries to find room.
"I’ve always seen them trying to make room, even if it means nurses have to take more patients," she said.
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
